Teaching the Boys: New Research on Masculinity, and Gender Strategies for Schools

This article draws on new social-scientific research on masculinity to develop a framework for
understanding gender issues in the education of boys. Gender is constructed within institutional
and cultural contexts that produce multiple forms of masculinity. Normally one form is
hegemonic over others. Schools are active players in the formation of masculinities. Schools
overall gender regimes typically reinforce gender dichotomy, though some practices reduce gender
difference. Masculinizing practices are concentrated at certain sites: curriculum divisions,
discipline systems, and sports. Pupils are also active in constructing masculinities. Pupil cultures
commonly emphasize heterosexual relationships and construct gender hierarchies. Boys
take up the offer of gender privilege in diverse ways, ranging from protest masculinity to anti-sexism.
The goals of educational work with boys include pursuing knowledge, improving relationships,
and pursuing justice. Programs may be either gender-specific or gender-relevant.
Experiential methods have been most common, but are vulnerable to disruption; other methods
are being explored. The main groups who shape the process of change (pupils, their parents,
their teachers, and social movements) have divided interests. Yet their interaction, plus
pressure from the wider world, is likely to produce growing educational attention to issues
about boys and masculinity.

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